Demolition Debris Removal in Saginaw, MI

Demolition Debris Removal across Saginaw County

Demolition is the one job on this site where the container is genuinely the easy part. Before anything comes down, there is a notification question, and it is the single most misunderstood rule in this trade. People assume the rule is about asbestos, so if there is no asbestos there is nothing to file. That is not what the regulator says.

Michigan's environmental agency, EGLE, administers the federal asbestos NESHAP program through its Air Quality Division. Its own fact sheet states that the notification requirement applies to “demolition activities below the thresholds (even for facilities with no asbestos).” The square-foot and linear-foot thresholds govern renovation. A demolition is notifiable regardless. The notice period is ten working days before work begins, through EGLE's MiEnviro Portal, and MCL 324.5519(3) requires a $100 fee for each original notification.

There is a residential exemption, it is real, and it is narrower than people think. It is set out below with its exact boundaries, because the version that circulates — “houses are exempt” — is wrong often enough to cost somebody a project schedule.

The notification comes before the container

Here is the sequence that keeps a demolition on schedule. A thorough inspection first: EGLE's fact sheet states that “the asbestos NESHAP requires that a thorough inspection be conducted for all renovations and all demolitions,” completed before work starts, with the inspecting contractor named on the joint EGLE and LEO notification form. A visual-only inspection is not acceptable unless the building is primarily steel and concrete or is unlikely to contain asbestos.

Then the notification, submitted through the MiEnviro Portal at least ten working days before work begins. Non-scheduled renovations can be covered by an annual notice filed ten working days before the start of the calendar year. Ordered demolitions and emergency renovations are notified no later than the following work day. The fee is $100 for an original notification under MCL 324.5519(3), with revisions at $10, and there is a detail worth noticing: if the fee is not paid, the notification is not considered submitted. Combined with a ten-working-day clock, an unpaid fee is a schedule problem rather than an accounting one.

Two agencies, named correctly, because out-of-state pages get this wrong. The environmental side is EGLE. The worker-safety side is MIOSHA, within Michigan LEO. It is not the state's licensing department. Saginaw County's asbestos NESHAP inspector is listed by EGLE as Steve Kidder, 517-243-4492.

Our part is narrow and we will not overstate it. Asbestos work is a separate trade with its own requirements under EGLE and MIOSHA. We supply containers. The inspection and the notification belong to the project, and we do not file either of them on anybody's behalf.

What goes in the container, and how the weight behaves

Once the paperwork is clear, the material question is straightforward. The City of Saginaw's ordinance describes the category exactly: Section 50.06(C) says the collection will not pick up “stones, bricks, plaster, shingles, lumber, demolition materials, building materials, concrete, sand, gravel, and earth,” and Section 50.06(I) separately excludes “material resulting from contract work,” naming construction or demolition among its own examples. A demolition load is excluded twice over, and that is the City's own wording rather than ours.

In the box, the thing to plan for is density. A gut-out that is plaster, lath, tile and mortar reaches the weight a loaded truck can lawfully carry on the road while the container still looks usable, so a smaller container swapped more than once beats one oversized box that cannot be lifted. Masonry and concrete are better kept in a dedicated heavy container than mixed through general demolition waste, because a clean single-material load has somewhere straightforward to go and a contaminated one does not.

Keep the site tidy while it runs. If demolition material ends up on the street right-of-way next to the property, Section 94.068 applies: an enforcement officer posts a weatherproof notice that the material is “improperly stored” and must be removed “within 72 hours from the date of this notice.” Those sections are in the City's code and they govern the City. We did not read the equivalent ordinances for the other sixteen communities we serve.